Recent Work
Rocket project reflection
The part of exhibition I thought went the best was the huge turnout of parents and intrigued members of the community. There was obviously a significant level of interest invested in our project. I think the rocket launching was extremely anticipated by both the students and the spectators due to its excitement factor, so a lot of people had a great time with it, whether they were launching or just watching. I also thought the load teams did terrific jobs. They were super efficient on the launchpad, having rockets ready in what I heard were record times. This added to the overall experience of the exhibition, because it introduced an air of professionalism to our jeans-and-sweatshirt event. Major props to the load teams!
On the other hand, what didn’t go well was the weather, because many rockets got tossed about in the wind (including ours). Even though there was nothing we could really do to change such a factor, it was really unfortunate, in my opinion, that we didn’t get to see everyone’s rockets fly undeterred. Also, while most teams were ready to launch their rockets on time (or according to the list, rather), a handful weren’t paying attention and had to delay their own launch. I thought that this took away from the tremendous effort that the load team put in to be quick on the launchpad. I know that everyone makes mistakes, but to me this feels like it would have been an easy one to fix.
If we could build the rocket all over again, I think it would be much better than it was. This is because I definitely would not be absent on the day the project was introduced and explained. While I managed to catch myself up, I still felt a bit rushed and behind everyone else for a bit. I think this affected the quality of our rocket more than it would immediately appear. Just being more in-the-know makes a significant difference.
The one design I would “steal” would be another nosecone design- not one in particular, though, because there were so many cool ones constructed. I saw a few that I thought for sure would win the team first place. The reason I would use another nosecone idea is that my rocket’s nosecone was a total fail, and not well thought-out at all. We ended up spending far too much time on our parachute and faulty fins to really focus on our nosecone. I don’t think we realized how complicated it was going to be, so saving it for last (or second to last) was definitely the wrong way to go. The order in which we should have constructed the order of our rocket should have been something along the lines of rocket body, nosecone, parachute, fins, and lastly, decoration. A quick breakdown- we would need the body of the rocket constructed first as a base of sorts, then the nosecone and the parachute because they would take a little more thought and work, and lastly, the fins and the decoration, because with just some quick cutting, some epoxy work, and some spray paint, we would be done.
While I thought exhibition went pretty smoothly, I think it could be refined. If the groups had a rocket launching before them in mind, and when that rocket launched was when they would begin to fill their rocket with water, then everyone would have their rockets ready on schedule. This wasn’t a huge issue, but its refinement would have made the exhibition just that much better. About my building and exhibition experience overall, I felt that the building process was super frustrating most of the time, but the great time I had at the exhibition made all the frustration well worth it.
On the other hand, what didn’t go well was the weather, because many rockets got tossed about in the wind (including ours). Even though there was nothing we could really do to change such a factor, it was really unfortunate, in my opinion, that we didn’t get to see everyone’s rockets fly undeterred. Also, while most teams were ready to launch their rockets on time (or according to the list, rather), a handful weren’t paying attention and had to delay their own launch. I thought that this took away from the tremendous effort that the load team put in to be quick on the launchpad. I know that everyone makes mistakes, but to me this feels like it would have been an easy one to fix.
If we could build the rocket all over again, I think it would be much better than it was. This is because I definitely would not be absent on the day the project was introduced and explained. While I managed to catch myself up, I still felt a bit rushed and behind everyone else for a bit. I think this affected the quality of our rocket more than it would immediately appear. Just being more in-the-know makes a significant difference.
The one design I would “steal” would be another nosecone design- not one in particular, though, because there were so many cool ones constructed. I saw a few that I thought for sure would win the team first place. The reason I would use another nosecone idea is that my rocket’s nosecone was a total fail, and not well thought-out at all. We ended up spending far too much time on our parachute and faulty fins to really focus on our nosecone. I don’t think we realized how complicated it was going to be, so saving it for last (or second to last) was definitely the wrong way to go. The order in which we should have constructed the order of our rocket should have been something along the lines of rocket body, nosecone, parachute, fins, and lastly, decoration. A quick breakdown- we would need the body of the rocket constructed first as a base of sorts, then the nosecone and the parachute because they would take a little more thought and work, and lastly, the fins and the decoration, because with just some quick cutting, some epoxy work, and some spray paint, we would be done.
While I thought exhibition went pretty smoothly, I think it could be refined. If the groups had a rocket launching before them in mind, and when that rocket launched was when they would begin to fill their rocket with water, then everyone would have their rockets ready on schedule. This wasn’t a huge issue, but its refinement would have made the exhibition just that much better. About my building and exhibition experience overall, I felt that the building process was super frustrating most of the time, but the great time I had at the exhibition made all the frustration well worth it.
Physics Behind the Rockets According to Newton’s first law, if there was no net force acting on our rockets, they would have left the launchpad and kept flying, straight up into the air with the exact same speed they had at the beginning. Since there was a net force acting on our rockets, as well as less than satisfactory weather conditions, most rockets didn’t fly too straight. Also an effect of net force- every single rocket, from the highest flying ones to the lowest, eventually slowed in the air, started descending, then hit the ground.
Newton's second law states that the acceleration of an object is proportional to the net force and inversely proportional to the mass of the object being accelerated. This means that when the rocket accelerated off the launchpad, there was greater net force from the rocket (mainly carbon dioxide and water) than the force that was keeping the rocket standing up straight. |
Newton’s third law was exhibited in our rocket when it stayed at rest on the launchpad before it was released into the air. Since the pairs of forces in our bottle were of equal strength and opposite direction, our rocket did not move because it was closed up, and every force was counteracted by its pair. It was only when the plug in the nozzle of the bottle was removed that the rockets flew. This was because the bottle’s bottommost force that had been countering the one directly opposite (at the top of the bottle) was removed, so the top one was was free to take control, launching the rocket. Because this is true, our rockets would have flown even in space, without anything to push off of.
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